Mag-log inMERRY CHRISTMAS đđ¤
I've been staring at this screen trying to figure out how to say what I want to say without sounding like a Hallmark card lol... but here goes.
Thank you.
Like genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Do you know what it feels like to be a small author? It feels like shouting into the void and hoping someone hears you. It feels like putting pieces of your soul into a story and wondering if anyone will care. It feels like refreshing your stats at 3am just to see if one more person clicked.
And then you showed up.
You clicked. You read. You stayed. You voted. You commented. You added my book to your library like it mattered.
And to me? That's everything.
That's you saying "I see you and I pick you." Out of all the books on this app, you picked mine. Do you know how insane that is? How grateful I am?
So here's my Christmas wish... if this book has made you feel something, anything... would you leave me a review? đĽşđ
It doesn't have to be perfect. Just real. Just you and your thoughts and your words. Tell me what you loved, what you hated, what made you scream into your pillow lol. I want to hear it all.
Reviews are how other readers find me. But more than that... hearing from you reminds me why I do this.
Merry Christmas, loves. You're making my dreams come true and you don't even know it đ¤
â Remi đ¤
KNOXâS POVSheâs right, Phantom says, low and certain, fully awake now. Sheâs been right since the first night. The house is wrong.âEmberâââAnd the wolf.â She turns to me, and now thereâs something almost desperate threading through it. âIn the fight. With Hale. I know you decided it was a concussion. I know thatâs the sensible answer, and Goddess, you love a sensible answer; youâd file the apocalypse under âweatherâ if you could.â A humourless breath. âBut I know what I felt, Knox. I reached for Sapphireâon purpose, controlled, exactly the way you taught me. And she came. I felt the silver start in my hands. And then Hale did something, and it didnât falter, it didnât fumble, it stopped. Like a door slamming shut inside me. Sapphire was there, and then she was gone, and I could not reach her, and thatâs when Hale put me on the floor.â Her voice cracks at the edges. âAnd then the blood from her eyes. And the way she looked older after. Aged. Like the fight peeled years off her right
KNOXâS POVI go still. I already have the gist of itâshe called me earlier this night, and she gave me the facts straight: my housekeeper had been moving sedated women through the servant tunnels in a hood.One of them had a fresh knife wound. Marjorie had drawn a blade on Reyes and called my fiancĂŠe a witch.I stood in the cold outdoors with the phone pressed to my ear and felt the floor tilt under me.I told Ember to do what she felt was right, and I meant itâand then I did not come home for four more hours, because I could not make myself face what waited hereâSheâs in the holding cells,â Ember says. âI kept her solitary. Where youâwhere I put her.â Her hand fists slightly in the sheet over my chest. âI keep thinking I should feel something clean about it. Vindicated, maybe. She pulled a knife, Knox. On Reyes. There was blood on those girls, actual blood, and she called me a witch and started screaming about the moon bleeding, and I did the right thing. I know I did the right thin
KNOXâS POVItâs past three when I finally give up on the crown for the night and go to her.I shower first, in the dark, because Iâve been in a cold garage and three colder meetings and Iâve got the whole ugly day still on my skin, and I donât want to bring any of it into that bed.Itâs a rule Iâve made without ever saying it aloud: whatever the day is, whateverâs rotting out there in the world with my name on it, I wash it off before I touch her.She gets the clean version. Sheâs earned the clean version.Thatâs the whole reason I do any of it, if Iâm honest with myself.The councils, the reports, the endless machinery of holding a continent together while everyone else sleepsâI grind through all of it, every night, chasing the one moment I get to walk into that room and find her waiting.A man can carry almost anything if thereâs a warm bed and a warmer woman at the end of it. I didnât use to believe that. I do now.I come out, towelling my hair, and sheâs awake.Of course sheâs awa
EMBERâS POVI donât even blink. I donât look away from her face. I just hold my hand out to the side.âDaxon,â I say, my voice dead calm. âPhone.âDaxon doesnât hesitate for a fraction of a second. He slaps his heavy, encrypted comms device straight into my palm.Marjorieâs breath catches. Her chest heaves, panic finally warring with the fanaticism.âWhat are you doing?âI dial the King.It rings twice.âDaxon.â Knoxâs voice is a low, dangerous rumble. He assumes itâs an emergency when his personal guard calls him directly.âItâs me,â I say.There is a micro-shift in the line. The danger turns into something much sharper, entirely focused.âEmber. Are you alright?ââIâm fine,â I say, keeping my eyes locked on the housekeeper. âBut Iâm standing in the east wing service passage with Marjorie. Reyes and Daxon are with me. She was wearing a dark hood, trying to move two sedated women through the servant tunnels. They are burning up with fever, and one of them has a fresh, bleeding knife w
EMBERâS POVâGet your hands off meââ Marjorie wrenches free of Daxon, breathing hard, and rounds on me, and her eyes are wet and blazing, and thereâs something in them I canât read. âYou have no idea what youâve just done. No idea. You think youâve saved them. You think youâre the hero of this, donât you, riding in with your guardsâââI think youâre doing something to vulnerable women that you refuse to explain,â I say coldly, âand I think an innocent person doesnât fight three people to keep it hidden. So hereâs what happens now, Marjorie. The girls stay inside. And youââ I hold her furious gaze, and I make the decision because I have watched Knox get gutted by people he trusted one too many times, and I will not stand here and let it happen again. âIâm giving you twenty-four hours.ââTwenty-four hours to what?ââTo leave.â I donât blink. âTo pack your things and resign your position and walk out of this house with whatever dignity you have left. Because by the time those twenty-four
EMBERâS POVAnd this time, I donât freeze.Something in me has had enough â enough of things I donât understand in this house, enough of cold wrong feelings I canât name, enough of watching people I liked turn out to be exactly the thing my gut warned me about.And I donât just walk toward her. I turn my head toward the guard station at the top of the sub-level stairs, where I know Reyes is posted for the night, and I raise my voice.âReyes.â It cracks down the corridor. âDown here. Now. Bring Daxon.âMarjorieâs head snaps up.âWhat are you doingâââMaking sure you canât move them one more inch.â Iâm already striding toward her, and behind me I hear boots, the heavy quick tread of guards responding to a summons, and Marjorieâs face in the shadow of the shawl goes from hunted to something harder, something cornered and furious. âYouâve had your chance to explain yourself to me, Marjorie. And you told me it wasnât my business and disappeared into the dark. So weâre done with that. If yo
KNOXâS POVHe blinks, the picture of innocence. âIâm not sure I understand. I explained the purpose quite clearly at the beginning of the evening. Conflict resolution. Closure. An opportunity for all parties toâââBullshit.âThe word is deadpan, and I see Loganâs head snap up, see Galeâs sobbing st
EMBERâS POVWhen I step outside the girlsâ cabin with Rayana and Queenie flanking me, Rayana is mid-monologue about the caribou sheâs planning to devour at dinner â something about sinking her teeth into tender, perfectly seared meat that borders on orgasmic â and Iâm half-listening, half-scanning
EMBERâS POVThe laughter dies. Everyoneâs eyes slide to Knox, who shrugs without a trace of shame.âNot much of a secret if you all already know.ââYou could have at least tried to be mysterious about it,â Rayana sighs. âWhereâs the fun in confessing things everyone already knows?ââYou said write
EMBERâS POVâFinally,â Rayana drawls. âI thought we were going to have to hose you two down.ââShut up,â I say, but Iâm grinning. âLetâs go eat your caribou.âDinner is a production.Rafael has transformed the main lodge into something out of a fairy tale â candles everywhere, a fire roaring in the







